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How to Use Lashings to Build a Comfortable Camp Chair

Scout sitting in a homemade camp chair made with tarp and lashings

Relax around camp by building a comfortable camping chair. It’s easy if you have the pioneering skills.

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE A CAMP CHAIR

  • Three spars about 4 inches in diameter, two 8 feet long and one 12 to 15 feet long
  • Four sections of rope, one 30 feet long and three 3 to 4 feet long
  • 6-by-8-foot (or slightly bigger) tarp, folded into an isosceles triangle
  • Three heavy rocks slightly smaller than baseballs but larger than golf balls

WHAT YOU’LL DO TO MAKE A CAMP CHAIR

Step 1 lash together three poles to start the camp chair

Step One: Determine which ends of each spar are the thickest, and designate those as the base of each spar. Lay the two shorter spars together on the ground, parallel to each other, with each base at the same end and even with each other.

Lay the long spar down in the opposite direction, with its base at the opposite end from the bases of the shorter spars, with only about two feet of overlap at the tops. Keep them all parallel.

Use the 30-foot rope to perform a tripod lashing around all three spars.

Step 2 Put rocks in each corner of tarp to build camp chair

Step Two: Fold each rock into a corner of the triangle-shaped tarp and twist to create a pocket that will hold the rock. Then tie one of the three shorter ropes around the pocket holding the rock by wrapping a few times and tying off the end with two half hitches.

Be sure to leave 2 to 3 feet of rope available. Repeat for each corner.

Step 3 attach tarp to tripod to make camping chair

Step Three: Attach the tarp to the tripod by wrapping the remaining rope around each spar once or twice and finishing with a taut-line hitch.

The longest spar should act as the back leg of the camp chair, so attach the rope at higher point on that spar to create the back of the chair.

campchair-4

Step Four: Relax comfortably in your camping chair.

15 Comments on How to Use Lashings to Build a Comfortable Camp Chair

  1. now we know how to recycle those out door chair seats when the cheap frames fall apart!! another use for a light but strong! bamboo poles!

  2. I’ve been making a camp chair for my troop at every summer camp for the last three years, but mine doesn’t use a tarp my troop weaves an actual chair out of rope and then we add a foot rest and it’s the most amazing chair ever. My troop won second place at a pioneering weekend with my chair a few years back.

  3. this was fun but hard i finally finished

  4. Cool, but i dont have tarp=<

  5. awsome chair

  6. The Man with the Banjo // June 29, 2010 at 4:25 pm // Reply

    This is cool 😀 but I don’t like knots 🙁

  7. I use this same idea to build a water filter system. I tie 3 levels on the tripod. The topmost of burlap to filter leaves, sticks etc, the second level of fine cotton to filter dirt, the lower level of very fine cotton covered with charcoal to remove everything else. I have a bucket underneath the lowest level to catch the clean water. I still boil it afterwards but the tripod water filter removes alot of the impurities. Pour the water into the top layer and let it leach down through the layers. When the clothes become clogged, clean them or replace them.

  8. That looks totallly cool. It also looks cozy. I should make one because all the other Scouts and my friends keep on Olying their chairs! It looks easy, but can you use it in the winter and any other season or just one!???

  9. dude wit no name // October 26, 2009 at 2:09 pm // Reply

    i dont know whether to use this i need an idea this is the only 1 but that guy says it doesnt work

  10. Takes a bit of trial and error to get the tarp at the right level and is all according to personal preference and comfort-level.

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